Chapter 11
CHAPTER 11
Adeline couldn’t sleep. She tossed and turned in her bed, trying everything she could think of—meditation, deep breathing, clenching and unclenching her entire body, counting sheep. She’d even resorted to a cup of warm milk, though she couldn’t remember the last time she’d drunk milk from a glass.
Nothing helped.
If it hadn’t been for the kiss, she knew she’d have been relaxed enough to sleep for a week, but she’d gone and ruined her impromptu spa trip by giving in to temptation. He’d been right there, naked and glistening, and she’d forgotten they were from different worlds for a moment. She’d acted like a magpie, drawn to his gleaming skin. She should’ve ignored it, ignored him and his insanely hot body, but… it was akin to being given a big red button that said, “Do Not Press.”
She sat bolt upright in bed. “He’s dead, for crying out loud! Has been dead for hundreds of freaking years!”
Gathering up her blankets and furs, she carried them over to the sheepskin rug by the fireplace and began to build a nest of sorts. Nearer the heat, she hoped it might bring back the sleepy feeling she’d relished at the pools.
“This is so stupid,” she muttered to the flickering flames. “This isn’t a Christmas vacation, he’s not a Christmas rom-com hero in plaid, this doesn’t have a happy ending in the snow, where everyone remembers the true meaning of Christmas. You’re stuck here, you don’t know how to get back, you need to get back, and kissing him is just about the most stupid thing you’ve ever done!”
And not just stupid, but dangerous. Her knowledge of the Salem Witch Trials wasn’t great, but she distinctly remembered women being accused left, right, and center of “bewitching” men. Logan might’ve claimed to be a fair man, and this wasn’t Salem, but what if a mob came for her with torches and pitchforks? His mother had already warned her that there wasn’t much anyone could do to help her if it came to something like that.
“First off, you need to watch your mouth,” she told herself, burrowing down into her nest of blankets and furs.
After all, it wasn’t just herself she had to worry about. There was a greater problem that she hadn’t considered properly, since she’d only just come to terms with the fact that she was in the past. If she changed anything in the timeline, even a little bit, the knock-on effect could be catastrophic. And she’d already said and done more than she should have.
“What does kissing an 18 th -century Laird do, huh? What does his knowing about planes do? Are there going to be aliens ruling the world when I get back?”
She groaned and threw the blankets over her face, too tired yet too awake to contemplate such huge things. Physics, theoretical or otherwise, had never been her forte.
But in the dark heat beneath the blankets, thoughts of the future faded away, bringing back the graze of Logan’s lips against hers, and his powerful arms around her, making her feel safer than she’d felt in years. A strange paradox, that the most dangerous man could make her feel the most secure.
No man should be allowed to look like that. It’s a genuine health hazard.
She closed her eyes. The kiss was something she couldn’t allow to happen again, but what harm could there be in a little solitary dreaming?
Just this once.
“The sun has been up for hours, and so should ye be!” A too-bright voice jolted Adeline awake, her eyes barely cracking open to see who was invading her beauty sleep.
“Now, what are ye doin’, sleepin’ by the fireplace like that?” a gentler voice asked, belonging to Sophie.
Adeline rubbed her eyes. “I got cold.”
“Well, ye mustnae do that again,” Sophie warned. “If a spark were to land on these furs, ye’d go up in flames.”
Adeline stared at the furs, realizing she had more to learn about the 1700s than she’d imagined. Although, with any luck, she wouldn’t be staying long enough to have to get used to the way things were done.
“There are more blankets in here.” Moira went to sit on a heavy oaken trunk at the foot of the bed, knocking on it so Adeline would know which trunk she meant.
The knock echoed in Adeline’s head, as if her wine hangover from Christmas Eve was only just catching up to her. Maybe it was, deciding to wait until after her time-jump migraine had dwindled before hitting her with the consequences of her actions.
“Is it late?” Adeline hissed as Sophie swung open the shutters to let in the daylight.
Moira chuckled. “I’ve never seen anyone spit at the mornin’ light before.”
“Fine, you caught me. I’m a vampire,” Adeline grumbled, immediately regretting the joke. They probably thought she was being serious.
Instead, she received two blank looks.
“A what?” Moira leaned forward, curious.
“Nothing.” Adeline remembered her promise to watch her mouth, and if they didn’t know what a vampire was, she wasn’t going to be the one to put it in the common vernacular before gothic novels had their heyday. “I’m… tired, that’s all. The light is hurting my eyes.”
Sophie half-closed the shutters again. “Have ye caught a chill from yer evenin’ bath?”
“What?” Adeline’s eyes widened. Had Sophie seen them in the pools?
“Logan told me he’d taken ye to the pools last night. I dinnae approve, with it bein’ so bitterly cold. The pools are warm enough, aye, but it’s the walkin’ back and forth with wet hair and damp skin that’ll get ye bedridden for a week,” Sophie said, while Adeline’s face burned as if she had succumbed to a fever.
Bedridden for a week, you say?
Her mind wandered to places it wasn’t supposed to, conjuring up images of his glistening skin. Adeline coughed to clear the thought, bringing a look of panic to Sophie’s face.
“ Are ye unwell?” the older woman asked, rushing over to rest a hand on her brow. “Ye do feel warm, but that might be because ye’ve slept by the fire all night. I’ll check ye again in a short while.”
Adeline had to smile. “And I thought I was the doctor.”
“Ye’re under me care now, for as long as ye’re here,” Sophie asserted, tucking a wild lock of sleep-tousled hair behind Adeline’s ear.
It was at that moment that Adeline realized Moira was holding something in her hand. It flashed in the pale slice of light that filtered through the gap in the shutters. A long, curved dagger—the edge fatally sharp. Adeline could tell from the way it winked menacingly at her.
Adeline put up her hands, fear gripping her insides. “I don’t think that’s the way to get me back to my time. If you kill me here, I’ve got a nasty feeling that I die in the future—I mean, the present, my present—too!”
“Kill ye?” Moira looked puzzled.
Sophie rolled her eyes. “Mercy, what am I to do with ye? Of course, she thinks ye’re goin’ to kill her when ye’re wavin’ that bloody thing around! Set it down before ye do hurt someone.”
“I wouldnae hurt ye.” Moira put the dagger down on the trunk, her expression wounded. “Did ye really think I was goin’ to do that?”
Adeline took a breath. “No offense, but… I don’t know anyone here very well, so I can’t take any chances. If I see a dagger, you’d best believe I’m going to put my hands up and beg for my life.” She paused. “If it’s not to kill me, what is it for?”
“To cut that beautiful purple out of yer hair,” Moira replied mournfully. “Ma said ye’d want to get out of yer chambers in the daylight, now that ye’re mostly recovered, so it has to be done before we can let ye wander.”
Adeline relaxed, letting out a groan. “I’d forgotten about that. Took me ages to get my hair to grow this long.”
“Hair grows back,” Sophie said, taking the dagger.
Adeline suspected that the older woman wanted to say something else, like “but limbs don’t,” but thought better of it. She probably didn’t want to scare Adeline any more than she already was.
“I’ll be sure to make it look nice,” Sophie promised, sitting down behind Adeline.
There, she spread out one of the blankets to catch the hair and lightly stroked Adeline’s locks backward over her shoulders. Adeline squeezed her eyes shut as she felt a tug. Sophie was holding some of her hair tightly in one hand. A moment later, Adeline heard the scratchy slice of the sharp blade cutting through, and a release as the purple came away in Sophie’s hand.
“What are you going to do with it?” Adeline asked, struggling to keep her spirits high. “How about keeping it as a trophy, or just to prove I was actually here when I eventually return?”
Sophie laughed. “I’m afraid there’s nay place for this but in the fire.”
She tossed the purple ends into the flames without hesitation, unleashing the acrid, almost meaty scent of burning hair. All three women wrinkled their noses at the unpleasant aroma.
Soon enough, all of the purple that seemed to cause so much trouble in this era and in Adeline’s had turned to ash in the fireplace. But as Sophie began to trim the dark brown locks that remained, Adeline heard her breathing change. Although Adeline couldn’t see her, she knew Sophie was wincing.
“Are you okay?” Adeline asked.
Sophie chuckled stiffly. “It’s me back. I hurt it a few weeks back while helpin’ rebuild a wall after a storm. It hasnae been the same since, but I manage well enough. It’s me own fault, anyway. I should’ve asked ye to stand.”
“Does it hurt when you lie down?”
“Nay, I wouldnae say so.”
Adeline nodded. “And when you sit in a chair, is it better or worse?”
“Better than sittin’ like this, but worse than lyin’ or standin’,” Sophie replied, while Moira watched, intrigued.
“Is there pain in the back of your legs, too?”
Sophie paused. “Aye, at times.”
“Would you mind if I assessed you?” Adeline turned around, no longer thinking about the loss of her purple ends.
Sophie arched a curious eyebrow. “Assess me? In what manner?”
“If you’d turn around for me, I can feel along your spine and see if there are any abnormalities. I think I might know what’s wrong with you, but I can’t be sure without feeling,” Adeline explained.
It felt good to be distracted by something familiar.
Hesitantly, Sophie turned around, and Adeline began her assessment, gently palpating down the ridges of the older woman’s spine. Toward the lower back, she felt what she’d expected to feel. A minor swelling, a few vertebrae above Sophie’s tailbone.
“If I had a well-stocked pharmacy, I could fix the pain in a heartbeat,” Adeline said, pulling a face. “Steroid injections, probably. Surgery, maybe. It doesn’t feel too swollen, but there’s definitely some inflammation. Lord help me, I don’t even have ibuprofen to work with.”
Sophie cleared her throat. “Is somethin’ wrong with me? Is it very serious?”
“I think you might have a herniated disk. I won’t lie, it’s probably not going to get better, since I don’t have anything that can make it better, but…” Adeline paused, racking her brain. “I can prescribe some Pilates. Physio will help. And… do you have any willow bark around here?”
She remembered reading about the benefits of willow bark in one of the survival medicine articles she’d been obsessed with lately. It was the precursor to aspirin, and though it wouldn’t have the strength of modern painkillers, it would definitely alleviate some of Sophie’s swelling and pain.
Sophie nodded. “The old healer used to have jars of it, if ye want to look in his chambers?”
“He won’t mind?”
“I doubt it. He left for the mainland last year and never came back,” Sophie replied with a worried smile. “But what is Pilates? Is it a tonic? A medicine of some sort?”
Adeline hesitated, recalling her promise to watch her mouth. “It’s… um… movement, to help with aches and pains. You know when you have a really sore muscle and you rub it for a while, and afterward, it doesn’t hurt as much?”
Sophie nodded.
“It’s like that,” Adeline said. “But you stretch the muscles instead. I’ll show you what I mean, it’s probably easier that way. This evening, maybe? We could do some… stretching, soak in the pools, and then, if I can find something useful in the healer’s chambers, I can give you a dose before you go to sleep. In the morning, we’ll see if there’s any improvement, though it’ll probably take weeks rather than days.”
A smile lifted the corners of Sophie’s lips as she turned back around and took hold of Adeline’s hands. “Ye’re a remarkable lass, Miss Adeline. If ye can do even the smallest thing for me back, I’ll be mightily grateful.”
“I’ll do my best with whatever I can get my hands on,” Adeline promised.
After all, healing people was why she’d gotten into the medical field in the first place. She might not have had heart rate monitors, blood testing, x-ray machines, or MRI scanners at her fingertips, but she had her knowledge. Somehow, she’d make it work.
Sophie gave Adeline’s hands a gentle squeeze. “Now, I daenae ken if this will be of any use to ye, but there are books in Logan’s study that the healer left behind. For as long as ye’re here, ye’re welcome to look through them.”
“Does he know I’m welcome to look through them?” Adeline laughed awkwardly.
Sophie waved a dismissive hand. “If ye have me permission, then ye have permission. Daenae worry about him.”
“Who said I was worried?” Heat warmed Adeline’s cheeks as she realized that guilt was probably written all across her face. She forced a laugh to make it seem like a joke, and though Sophie chuckled in return, she knew a pity laugh when she heard one. “Is he in the keep right now?”
Sophie shook her head. “I daenae believe so.”
“Good.” Adeline puffed out a breath. “I might go and take a look at those books, then.”
I’ll have to face him at some point…
But maybe that some point could wait a while longer. If they crossed paths, so be it, but she wasn’t going to seek him out on purpose. With her thoughts still full of him and that searing kiss, being near him again so soon would be a recipe for disaster.